Merck sticks to Keytruda TV ad spree (Marketing)

Bristol-Myers Squibb’s Opdivo dropped national TV ad spending in March after a bruising battle with a key competitor—Merck’s Keytruda—in February. Opdivo fell from No. 3 to No. 38 last month as spending plummeted to just $2.5 million from $16 million, according to real-time TV tracker iSpot.tv.

The advertising pullback comes after a pileup of bad news for Opdivo and a pull-ahead for Keytruda, which won an OK in previously untreated lung cancer and quickly filed for tandem treatment alongside chemotherapy. Bristol-Myers, meanwhile, dropped an accelerated filing for dual Opdivo therapy with Yervoy in lung cancer, after losing out in a first-line trial.

Merck pressed that advantage in March, bumping TV ad spending to $20.3 million, up from $17.6 million the month before.

Other drugmakers that made the top TV spenders list for March include the No. 1 spender—again. AbbVie’s Humira topped the ranking with $31.5 million in TV ads across its three indications for arthritis, psoriasis and Crohn’s disease/colitis.